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The second, called Scarecrow, is an engineering model of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover created with less weight than the actual model to compensate for the difference in Mars' gravitational pul.

The rovers were this week tested in the Mars Yard at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

A Rover crossing sign is seen outside of a sandy, Mars-like environment named the Mars Yard where engineering models of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover are being tested

The goal of the mission is to assess whether the landing area has ever had or still has environmental conditions favorable to microbial life.

Curiosity will land near the foot of a layered mountain inside Gale crater, layers of this mountain contain minerals that form in water.

The portion of the crater floor where Curiosity will land has an alluvial fan likely formed by water-carried sediments.

Curiosity will also carry the most advanced load of scientific gear ever used on Mars’ surface, a more than 10 times as massive as those of earlier Mars rovers.

Curiosity is about twice as long and five times as heavy as NASA’s twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, launched in 2003.

But it inherited many design elements from them, including six-wheel drive, a rocker-bogie suspension system and cameras mounted on a mast to help the mission’s team on Earth select exploration targets and driving routes.

A high gain antenna used for communications on top of an engineering model of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover

Three of six 20 inch aluminum wheels are seen on an engineering model of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover

Samples of wheels used on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover (top), landing in 2012, Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity (middle), which both landed in 2003, and Sojourner Mars rover (bottom), which landed in 1997

An engineering model of NASA's Curiosity Mars running through its paces on earth

The Scarecrow Mars Rover, which is an engineering model of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover created with less weight than the actual model to compensate for the difference in Mars' gravitational pull

Nasa's Steve Lee points to the remote sensing mast which includes navigation cameras and a ChemCam laser on an engineering model of the Curiosity Mars rover